Christmas Season 2011 - The Swedish Institute Part 2

As kids Mom used to read Sam, Pete and I The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren. I loved the story and was delighted when Mom visited my classroom this year and read it to the kids. The receiving room at the Swedish Institute was decked out with a bunch of Tomtens and you can see some in the above photo. Actually, if you look to the right of the picture you can see one of a couple that were in the fireplace. You can see me snapping the photo in the mirror above.

Christmas Season 2011 - The Swedish Institute Part 1

Mom and I went to the Swedish Institute today to look at their Christmas trees which are on display until January 8th. We found one tree that had the prickly silver ornaments pictured above. Mom said she used to make ornaments like these when she was a little girl. The pattern was from a Better-Homes-and-Gardens-type magazine. She said she took circles of aluminum foil and wrapped them around pencil tips and then somehow fashioned them all together. I seem to remember Grandma Jean having some ornaments like these.